Trump Floats Holding North Korea Summit in Peace House Near DMZ

EghtesadOnline: President Donald Trump has a new idea for the location of a potential meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un: the Peace House near the Demilitarized Zone marking the North’s border with South Korea.

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30 April 2018

"Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!" Trump said in a Twitter posting Monday.

Trump had previously said potential locations for the historic meeting had been whittled down to two or three locations. The president has said he hopes to meet with Kim by early June to try to resolve a standoff between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, according to Bloomberg.

Panmunjom, also known as the Peace House, is already an historic location, having been the site of the signing of the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War fighting. Kim and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in met in that location last week after Kim walked across the military demarcation line.

The village of Panmunjom sits on the 38th parallel, a line drawn by the former Soviet Union and the U.S. after World War II to separate the countries. But it has served as ground zero for much of the turmoil since 1953 , including bloody clashes, defections -- and fruitless hopes for peace. Peace House is a three-story building built in 1989 for the specific purpose of hosting talks between the countries. It is controlled by the United Nations.

Last week, Moon and Kim agreed to hold talks aimed at formally ending the 70-year state of war that has existed between them, and this weekend Kim said his country aims to shutter its main nuclear testing site in May.